


Part Time Jobs

by Ajisai



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Family, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 07:38:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3166814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ajisai/pseuds/Ajisai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Aunt Cass was adamant that working at the café wouldn’t become their de facto part-time job, and she hired plenty of people, but it happened anyway.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part Time Jobs

Aunt Cass was adamant that working at the café wouldn’t become their de facto part-time job, and she hired plenty of people, but it happened anyway. College students flaked in August, suddenly realizing they hadn’t had a vacation after all, and Tadashi would be pressed into service ‘just for a few days.’ A cook would call in with a sob story about a sick child and a broken down car, and Aunt Cass would nod, nod, nod, and whisper at Hiro to grab an apron to start mixing up cookie batter. Sometimes Tadashi and Hiro would come downstairs in the morning, only to find that she’d been baking, organizing, and cleaning for hours already. Tadashi would look at Hiro, or the other way around, and they’d pitch in before school, receiving pastries and hurried hugs in return.

One particular holiday season, it rained every day after Thanksgiving. It was not the romantic kind of rain that slowly trickled down and looked pretty, making people nostalgic for snow, but the kind of rain that soaked everything, stopped for about five minutes, and then drenched again. San Fransokyians were grumpy, and the customers in the café were no exception. One day during the second week of December, a customer made one of the waitresses cry, and after Aunt Cass had dealt with that, there were still five tables waiting.

“Guys… I’m really sorry about this, but…” Aunt Cass looked pleadingly back at their special reserved table. “A little help? Just for a minute?”

Tadashi sighed. Based on the papers spread out across the table, Hiro could see that his older brother had made very little progress on the college applications and essays he’d been working on since October. (“I keep getting distracted,” he ruefully explained. “There are just so many projects I want to work on.”) However, there was no trace of resentment in his voice as he replied, “Sure thing, Aunt Cass. Just let me straighten these up.”

“I’ll do that,” Hiro said, eager to help, just not in the form of washing dishes.

“Really? Do you know what I’m trying to do here?”

“Uh, yeah. How hard can it be? M.I.T. goes here, Tokyo Daigaku goes there…”

“Excuse me, can I get some service over here?” A customer at a nearby table demanded.

Tadashi made his decision swiftly. “OK, Hiro. I’m counting on you.”

Left with the sea of papers, Hiro took a deep breath. He hadn’t expected Tadashi to let him do anything at all, and especially not anything in the Looming College Search of Doomy Doom (an in-joke that was getting less and less funny as time went on.) He peered down at the hastily compiled lists, official forms, and brightly colored brochures. _OK_ , he thought, _I’ll start there_.

The brochures were the easy part. Sorting through the rest of the papers was really hard, and Hiro soon grew bored. It seemed like every application asked the same questions but just a little differently each time, so that you couldn’t use the same answer twice. He stacked past a few unfinished essays (“My Heroes: Ada Lovelace and Nicola Tesla”), more than five sheets of tasks that still needed to be done (“Get recommendations. Mr. Phelps? Ms. Gutierrez?”) and finally came to rest on the financial aid paperwork.

This was the most boring of all.

He flopped backwards in his chair, groaning aloud.

“Hey, there, kiddo. What’s the problem?” Aunt Cass had appeared out of nowhere, her hands momentarily empty. She peered down at the papers, and frowned.

“This stuff is the worst,” He complained.

“It totally is,” she agreed. “You’d better let me handle it.”

“I dunno. Tadashi told me to do this, I don’t wanna lose anything and make him mad.”

“Trust me. I won’t lose anything, and he won’t get mad. This part is my job, after all.” She smiled. “It’ll be my job again when your time comes, too.”

He shrugged. Adults were fond of talking like that, and he didn’t know what to do or say when they did. It was like they expected a reaction from the wrong chemicals.

“Good work on the rest of it. Now, go help Stacey in the kitchen. She’s got those daifuku you like so much.”

“Black sesame?”

“Yes. Go.”

Hiro jumped up, glancing out of the café window. It was pouring again outside, and his brother was silhouetted in the window, chatting with customers, a friendly group of students from a nearby university. Looking at his brother’s happy smile, Hiro wondered if it would be weird when his brother left for school.

_Nah_ , he thought, _that won’t be weird. He’ll still be around, just not as much._

_OK. Maybe a little weird._

_Then he hurried into the kitchen and got to work._

**Author's Note:**

> A present for kate in the 2014 Fandom_stocking exchange, who requested, "Ohohoh! And Aunt Cass! She's so delightful! A little slice of life of Hiro and Tadashi helping out in the cafe or them all having breakfast together would be delightful."
> 
> I would love to have read Tadashi's college application essays. :)


End file.
